When it comes to the issue of “society” versus the “individual,” Koreans tend to stress the importance of society, whereas Americans value the individual and individuality. Koreans tend to think that without society, there can be no individual. On the contrary, Americans seem to think that the individual comes first, and then society. Likewise, Koreans prefer community and the community spirit, while Americans value independence and individuality. That is why so many Koreans chant, “Long live our country!” whereas Americans proclaim, “Live free or die,” as the license plate of the state of New Hampshire proclaims. 

Whenever something goes wrong, therefore, Americans often blame themselves and try to cope with the problem on their own. As a result, many young, vulnerable Americans reportedly exhibit symptoms of depression. The same thing goes for American soldiers who were dispatched to Iraq and Afghanistan. According to a newspaper report, among the American veterans who took tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, approximately 12,000 attempted suicide and 1 out of 8 must receive treatment from a psychiatrist. This uniquely American phenomenon well illustrates the American tendency to blame oneself for even what happens in war.

On the contrary, when Koreans face a problem, instead of trying to cope with the problem alone, they conveniently blame society. Thus few Koreans seem to suffer serious depression or posttraumatic stress disorder that requires therapy. For example, Korean soldiers tend to think that they are immune from any wrongdoing as long as they are in uniform; the country they serve is to be blamed for all problems.

By the same token, historically we have blamed others for our miseries and failures. When we lost our sovereignty in 1910, for example, we blamed Japan and Western countries. We seldom blame our incompetent, myopic leaders who stubbornly refused to open our ports to the world and to use skillful diplomacy with foreign countries. When it comes to the Korean War, we have long blamed the Soviet Union, China, and the United States, instead of us.

The tradition of blaming others still persists in today’s Korea. In fact, it is flourishing in every nook and cranny of Korean society which is based on intricate webs of relationships. When we are poor, for example, we blame the rich for our poverty because we believe the rich deprived us of our opportunities. When we fail the entrance exam, we blame our education system and the first rate universities that refused us. When we cannot get a job, we blame capitalism that instigates competition. And we blame the rich and privileged who have an advantage in competitions.

Recently, I heard someone say on a radio program that according to statistics, the poorer your family is, the poorer your TOEIC scores will be. Likewise, if your family income is low, you are more likely to fail in job interviews. Of course, if your family income is low, you cannot afford to attend a TOEIC preparation class and as a result, may get lower scores on the TOEIC. Nevertheless, it is still dubious whether one’s family income has something to do with one’s English proficiency. How a company can find out about a job applicant’s family income escapes me as well, because these days, you do not reveal your family income or father’s occupation on job applications. And interviewers are not allowed to ask such private questions either. With such statistics in hand, we simply blame the rich for our failures or unhappy plight.

Currently in South Korea, a war is going on between the so-called “gap” and “eul.” These two terms, which originally come from language for a contract between a contractor and a subcontractor, are now being used to describe the unfair relationship between the tyrannical, privileged major group and the suppressed, underprivileged minor group: the employer vs. the employed, or the publisher vs. the author. And they constantly blame each other.

The problem is that contrary to what most Koreans mistakenly believe, the world is not solely made up of the privileged “gap” and the underprivileged “eul.” As a newspaper article recently pointed out, if the “eul” makes a subcontract with a third party, then it becomes a “gap.” The Korean people should know that the world is much more complex than they assume. Not realizing the age of the binary divisions is now over, many Koreans still believe that the world is made up of two extremes: progressives and conservatives; rich and poor; privileged and underprivileged. It never seems to occur to Koreans that there may be third possibilities such as conservative liberals, the middle class and the semi-privileged.

We assume that there are many psychologically wounded people in our society, and is now calling for the healing of those people’s wounds. However, as Slavoj Zizek points out in his parable of a prostitute and Jesus, we cannot heal all types of wounds. We should overcome the age-long “han” and stop blaming others. We should all take greater individual responsibility. 

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. He can be reached at sukim@snu.ac.kr. ― Ed.